TV Locations – Page 12 – IAMNOTASTALKER

November 2, 2018June 6, 2020

Demitasse Café from “Bosch”

I hope all of my fellow stalkers had a fun and safe Halloween. For this year’s festivities, the Grim Cheaper and I headed over to our neighbor’s house for an amazing party (the decorations were like nothing I have ever seen!) and had an absolute blast. Our 2018 costumes were, per usual, celebrity-inspired. Unusual is the fact that they were all the GC, which typically never happens. As of late, he has been rather obsessed with Spencer Pratt and his Snapchat feed, though, so when we started discussing costumes this summer, he mentioned that he wanted to dress up as Speidi. I wasn’t following either Spencer or his wife, Heidi, on social media at the time, but as soon as I took a look at her Instagram stories and saw that she regularly dons a set of black pajamas strikingly similar to a pair I already owned, I was all in!

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Creating the look was a snap. The GC purchased a tie dye t-shirt from Spencer’s company Pratt Daddy, a signet pinky ring from Amazon, and glued a hummingbird toy that belongs to our cats onto a handheld feeder also found on Amazon. For Spence’s ubiquitous crystal necklaces, he simply looped some suede twine around two actual Spencer Pratt crystals that he had gifted me for Christmas last year. The Make Speidi Famous Again hat had to be specially made since they are no longer offered on the Pratt Daddy site. To round out the look, he wore shorts and tennis shoes already in his closet. To portray Spencer and Heidi’s baby, Gunner, we utilized the same doll that played Shiloh when the GC and I dressed up as Brad and Angelina in 2006. I also reused my Emily Maynard wig, purchased a sling carrier on Amazon, grabbed my everyday house slippers, and, voila, our Spencer and Heidi costumes were complete! The GC completely ate the whole thing up, playing “Look What You Made Me Do” on his iPhone and holding crystals to his head all evening. It looks like I may be rubbing off on him when it comes to Halloween, finally! Winking smile And now, on with the post!

I love a good police procedural. And, as weird as it may sound (especially considering I couldn’t be a bigger scaredy cat if I tried!), there’s nothing I enjoy more than viewing Law & Order: SVU before bed. I don’t know what it is about that show – it’s like warm milk to me. Despite its rather grim nature, it is somehow calming. And while I could watch it every.single.night., the GC likes to change up our television viewing every so often. So, on the recommendation of my mom, I recently suggested we give Bosch, the Amazon series based upon Michael Connelly’s detective Harry Bosch novels, a try. Ten minutes into episode 1 and we were hooked. I love the show’s noirish roots, lead actor Titus Welliver’s constant deadpan delivery, and the locations. Oh, the locations! Set and shot in the City of Angels, Bosch makes spectacular use of real life L.A. locales, some iconic, some lesser known. I was thrilled to recognize one lesser known spot, Demitasse, while watching Season 2’s “Exit Time.” The Little Tokyo café is a longtime favorite of mine. Though I mentioned it in my 2015 guide to Los Angeles’ coffee scene, until I saw it pop up on Bosch, I did not realize it was a filming location. So I figured it was high time I dedicate a post to the place.

I first discovered Demitasse in October 2011 when I randomly walked by the corner shop on my way to stalk Kyoto Gardens. The unique contraptions displayed in the front window stopped me right in my tracks and I promptly ventured closer to get a better look.

As the posted sign informed me, the machines were actually Kyoto-style slow-drip iced coffee brewers, aka the “Kyoto Twins,” which “drip water onto coffee beds, allowing the water to slowly extract flavors from the coffee, leaving us with a rich, layered and complex iced coffee.” Intrigued, I headed right inside, where I ordered what turned out to be one of the best iced lattes of my life! Since that day, I make it a point to pop into Demitasse whenever I find myself nearby.

Demitasse (which means “small coffee cup”) was the brainchild of Bobak Roshan, a 2008 USC Gould School of Law graduate who found himself more intrigued by java than statutes. Initially figuring he’d open a café post-retirement, his plans quickly shifted and, in 2010, he traded his law books for grounds. He found the perfect site to establish his coffee bar in a wedge-shaped spot that formerly housed a frozen yogurt shop on the corner of South San Pedro and Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka Streets.

Demitasse opened its doors to the public on August 15th, 2011.

The inspiration for the café’s horseshoe-shaped interior came from an unusual place. As Roshan explained to The Rafu Shimpo website, “This bar is actually heavily influenced by sushi bars. I was in San Francisco once at this place called Sebo. You sit up at the bar and you talk to the chef and he tells you about the fish and what you’re eating and why it’s fresh and where it comes from. I thought, ‘This is what coffee should be like. So we specifically designed [our bar] for making drinks and interacting with customers, so they can sit and watch us work and we can talk to them . . . and we’ve certainly become friends with a lot of our regulars.”

From the beginning, Roshan has utilized the Kyoto method of brewing. Of the complicated technique, The Rafu Shimpo website says, “The coffee siphon (also called the ‘vacuum coffee pot’) dates back to 1800s Berlin, but fell out of popularity in Europe around the mid-20th century. The ‘weird contraptions’ are now most popular in Asia, and Demitasse’s siphons, like much of their other equipment, comes from Japan. Brewing by siphon instead of with a standard coffee maker creates a smoother, more flavorful cup of coffee, taking out much of the body and leaving a drink almost as delicate as tea.” The process takes a whopping 8 to 16 hours to complete! The result is well worth it, though. The Kyoto Twins create some of the richest and creamiest brew I have ever sampled.

In a genius move, Demitasse also serves its iced java in special sake glasses made to keep the cubes separate from the coffee, ensuring that drinks don’t get watered down (one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to iced brew).

Though the place struggled a bit during its early days, it eventually caught on. So much so that Roshan opened up two sister outposts – one at 6363 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Grove and another at 1149 Third Street in Santa Monica. Today, the Little Tokyo branch is bustling most hours, which is not surprising. As I said in my 2015 guide to coffee in L.A., grabbing a java at Demitasse is a full-on experience! It doesn’t hurt that the café is situated along Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka Street, a quaint closed-to-cars block home to countless cute boutiques and shops.

In “Exit Time,” which aired in 2016, Harry Bosch pretends to run into Detectives Brad Conniff (David Marciano) and Julie Espinosa (Jacqueline Pinol) at Demitasse in an attempt to find out what they know about the murder of George Irving (Robbie Jones). Both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior of the café appeared in the episode.

Because the GC and I have only watched Bosch’s first two seasons, I did not realize until sitting down to write this post that Demitasse has actually been featured in no less than four episodes of the show! In Season 3, it popped up in “El Compadre” as the spot where Chief Irvin Irving (Lance Reddick) asked Jun Park (Linda Park) out on an official date.

Irving and Jun returned to Demitasse the following season in the episode title “The Coping.”

Jun meets reporter Laura Cook (Kristen Ariza) at the café to give her some off-the-record information in Season 4’s “Book of the Unclaimed Dead.”

And Demitasse pops up briefly in Bosch’s Season 6 premiere, titled “The Overlook,” as the spot where Captain Sarah McCurdy (Jennifer Hasty) briefs Harry and Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector) on the Sovereigns.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Demitasse café, from Bosch, is located at 135 South San Pedro Street in Little Tokyo. You can visit the coffee shop’s official website here. Portal light installation can be found just up the block in the Weller Court shopping center at 123 Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka Street. Kinokuniya, one of my favorite book/gift stores, is on Weller Court’s second level directly above Marukai Market. And Kyoto Gardens from Her is steps away on the third floor of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Los Angeles Downtown at 120 South Los Angeles Street.

October 26, 2018October 16, 2019

The YWCA Hollywood Studio Club from “Dexter”

Aside from Sex and the City’s, I don’t think there’s ever been a television finale that I loved. Dexter’s, in my opinion, was the absolute worst. But I was thoroughly mesmerized by the location chosen to portray Rendall Psychiatric Hospital, the ultra creepy abandoned lair of the Brain Surgeon Killer, Oliver Saxon (Darri Ingolfsson), in the series’ last three episodes. The structure, with its dark, looming presence, dramatic arched windows and iron balconies, was striking onscreen. Thanks to Seeing Stars, I learned that filming had taken place at the historic YWCA Hollywood Studio Club and ran right out to stalk it shortly after the Dexter finale aired in November 2013. While I had every intention of blogging about the site the following October, somehow I never got around to it. So here goes!

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The Hollywood Studio Club was initially founded in 1916 by a small group of aspiring actresses who regularly gathered at the Hollywood Branch Library to rehearse plays. A friendly librarian named Eleanor Jones got the ball rolling on finding the ladies a more suitable venue to perfect their craft, securing a nearby hall with the help of the Young Women’s Christian Association. At the time, most of the club members lived alone in less-than-adequate housing, so in 1919 Eleanor and the YWCA spearheaded a campaign to establish a safe, clean, affordable and chaperoned residence for the girls, as well as other young Hollywood hopefuls from all walks of the entertainment industry, to reside in upon moving to town. The group found what they were looking for in a large columned Colonial-style pad at 6129 Carlos Avenue in the heart of Tinseltown. Though it no longer stands, you can see what it looked like here. Cecil B. DeMille and Mary Pickford helped provide funding and furnishings. With space for only twenty residents, it was not long before the place was bursting at the seams and a larger facility was needed. Numerous show business heavyweights helped raise money for the project, including Harold Lloyd, Gloria Swanson and Jackie Coogan, with the YWCA picking up the rest of the tab. Julia Morgan was commissioned to design the new site and construction was completed in 1926.

The picturesque three-story Mediterranean Revival-style property featured housing for 88 women, as well as an auditorium, a kitchen that offered two daily meals (Laugh-In’s Jo Anne Worley, a one-time resident, claims the coffee cake served on Sundays was the best she’d ever had), a rehearsal hall, a dining room, a loggia, a library, a gym, a spacious living room, beamed ceilings, multiple fireplaces, 24-hour phone service, and a grassy central courtyard. By all accounts it was an idyllic place to live. As character actress Virginia Sale, who moved into the club in 1927, recounted to the Los Angeles Times in 1975, “It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. And it was like a real home. You knew that the minute you walked in.” Often referred to as a “sorority,” the YWCA Hollywood Studio Club also offered onsite drama, singing, dancing, design, exercise, and writing classes and regularly hosted special events, such as dances, plays and fashion shows. You can see some photos of the place from its early days here.

Countless luminaries called the place home over the years including Donna Reed, Kim Novak, Rita Moreno, author Ayn Rand, Barbara Eden, Sharon Tate, clothing designer Georgia Bullock, Maureen O’Sullivan, ZaSu Pitts, Ann B. Davis, Sally Struthers, and Miss Marilyn Monroe, who in June 1948 moved into Room 307 with actress Clarice Evans. Monroe later occupied Room 334, which was a single. You can see a picture of a check the starlet wrote with the Studio Club listed as her address here. It was during her residency that she posed for those infamous nude photographs. According to Wikipedia, the September 1996 issue of Saturday Night magazine quoted Marilyn as once saying “Funny how shocked people in Hollywood were when they learned I’d posed in the nude. At one time I’d always said no when photographers asked me. But you’ll do it when you get hungry enough. It was at a time when I didn’t seem to have much future. I had no job and no money for the rent. I was living in the Hollywood Studio Club for Girls. I told them I’d get the rent somehow. So I phoned up Tom Kelley, and he took these two color shots—one sitting up, the other lying down . . . I earned the fifty dollars that I needed.” The rest, as they say, is history.

Not all residents found fame and fortune, though. As Virginia Sale also told the Los Angeles Times in 1975, “One woman, older than the rest of us, was murdered in front of the club by a boyfriend. He was an ex-serviceman or something like that. And he then killed himself.” I tried to find some further verification of the story, but came up empty, so I am not sure if it is true or not. Either way, it only adds to the place’s intrigue. In all, more than 10,000 girls called the YWCA Hollywood Studio Club home before it shut its doors in 1975, after falling victim to both hard financial times and a change in the fire code that would have required a whopping $60,000 worth of upgrades. The fire improvements were eventually made following the shuttering and the site subsequently operated as a YWCA Job Corps training center for a time. Today, the building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Historic-Cultural Monument, is utilized as a Workforce/Youth Development center/Digital Learning Academy – and a filming location. You can check out some current photos of its interior here.

The YWCA Hollywood Studio Club first appeared as Rendall Psychiatric Hospital in the Season 8 episode of Dexter titled “Goodbye Miami,” in the scene in which the deranged Saxon shows his mother, Dr. Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling), where he kills all of his victims and removes portions of their brains. Shudder! The abandoned former mental asylum is said to be located at 1215 West Clarendon Avenue in Allapattah, Florida on the series, but its actual address is 1215 Lodi Place in Hollywood.

The building popped up in the next two episodes of Dexter, as well, titled, respectively, “Monkey in a Box” . . .

. . . and “Remember the Monsters?” It is in the latter, which served as the show’s horrific finale, that Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter) is shot, setting off a series of seriously depressing events.

The interior of the YWCA Hollywood Studio Club was also utilized on Dexter.

But I am fairly certain that Saxon’s kill room, supposedly located inside Rendall Psychiatric Hospital, was nothing more than a studio-built set.

Dexter is hardly the only production to have been lensed on the premises. Thanks to fellow stalker Paul I learned that the club masked as Smith’s Grove Sanitarium in a dream sequence in the 1981 horror film Halloween II.

In the Season 2 episode of Visiting . . . with Huell Howser titled “Hollywood Ladies,” which aired in 1994, Huell tours the Hollywood Studio Club with four women who lived there during the 1940s and have remained friends ever since.

I highly recommend giving the episode a watch (which you can do here). Not only do the woman share fascinating and heartwarming tales of their time at the club and the lifelong friendships it cultivated, but viewers are given great glimpses of the property, including its central courtyard . . .

. . . and dining room and auditorium.

In the Season 1 episode of Agent Carter titled “The Iron Ceiling,” which aired in 2015, the YWCA Hollywood Studio Club portrayed the Red Room Academy, supposedly located in Russia.

The site, playing itself, is where Marla Mabrey (Lily Collins) and the rest of Howard Hughes’ (Warren Beatty) contract starlets take singing and dancing lessons in 2016’s Rules Don’t Apply (which I only scanned through to make the screen captures below, but is now on my list to watch as it looks absolutely darling – and stars Megan Hilty, whom I adore!). Both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior of the club are featured in the movie.

The kitchen also appears briefly as the kitchen of the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, where Hughes has 350 gallons of Baskin-Robbins banana nut ice cream delivered after learning the flavor is being discontinued.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to the Seeing Stars website for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The YWCA Hollywood Studio Club, aka Rendall Psychiatric Hospital from Dexter, is located at 1215 Lodi Place in Hollywood.

October 23, 2018October 16, 2019

The Old Orange County Courthouse from “American Horror Story: Asylum”

It is a sad truth that many filming locations are not publicly accessible. (I’m looking at you Fremont Place, Golden Oak Ranch, the Jack Rabbit Slim’s exterior from Pulp Fiction, pretty much all of the houses from Scream, and Venice High School! Yes, I have toured the latter several times, but I have never been able to stalk the hallway Britney Spears shimmied down in her “. . . Baby One More Time” music video and it remains one of my top must-see spots.) I am very happy to report that is not the case with the Old Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana, though. As the Grim Cheaper and I were thrilled to discover upon visiting last March, not only is the property open every weekday, but guided tours are also offered and photographs even encouraged! Now that’s my kind of place! We wound up spending several hours exploring the building, learning all about its architecture, history, and, of course, onscreen portrayals, the most famous of which was as the ultra-spooky Briarcliff Manor in American Horror Story: Asylum. So to the top of my Haunted Hollywood To-Blog List the site went!

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The handsome Richardsonian Romanesque-style property, designed by architect C. L. Strange, opened for operation on November 12, 1901, after 17 months of construction. During its early years the 30,000-square-foot, two-and-a-half-story building served as the county courthouse, as well as housing offices for county workers including the Board of Supervisors, the sheriff, and the district attorney.

Built of Arizona red sandstone and Temecula granite, with a metal rooftop painted to look like tile, the structure, which cost $117,000 to complete, really is a sight to behold.

They just don’t build ‘em like this anymore.

We happened to arrive at the courthouse just as the sun was gracing its edifice with majestic palm tree shadows, making it even more striking.

I mean, come on!

The Old Orange County Courthouse looks a bit different today than it did when it was initially built thanks to the loss of the towering cupola that once capped its roof. The 63-foot-tall piece, modeled after that of Trinity Church in Boston, suffered damage during the 1933 Long Beach earthquake and had to be removed. You can see a photograph of it when it was still intact here.

Aside from the elimination of the cupola and some other minor changes made to the roof following the quake, little of the building has been altered since it was constructed 117 years ago.

The place did fall victim to a few unsightly renovations over the years, including the removal of the exquisite original tiling, the addition of carpeting, and the installation of a drop ceiling, but thankfully the courthouse was brought back to its former glory via a massive restoration project that took place from 1983 to 1992.

Though no legal proceedings have taken place on the premises since a new, larger courthouse was built in 1969, its main tribunal, Courtroom No. One, remains intact.

The wood-paneled venue was the site of numerous famous trials during its heyday, including that of Beulah Overell and George Gollum, who in 1947 were accused of killing Beulah’s parents by blowing up their yacht, as well as that of Henry Ford McCracken, who was charged with the slaying of ten-year-old Patty Jean Hull in what became California’s first murder trial in 1952.

Today the Old Orange County Courthouse, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is also California State Landmark No. 837, operates as a county park and houses the marriage license bureau, the Orange County History Center, and the Orange County Archives.

The building also functions as a special events venue, a setting for wedding photographs, and, of course, a filming location.

The Old Orange County Courthouse was featured prominently throughout American Horror Story: Asylum as Briarcliff Manor, a supposed Massachusetts-area tuberculosis ward where more than 46,000 people died. The property was shown in both present day, in which it was made to seem dilapidated and abandoned . . .

. . . and its 1960’s state, when it was still in operation as a sanitarium.

The courthouse’s façade was digitally altered for the series, which aired from October 2012 to January 2013. As you can see below, not only was an entire floor added to the structure, but its roofline and gable windows were also adjusted slightly.

Despite the changes, the building is entirely recognizable from its many appearances on the show.

Only the exterior of the courthouse was utilized on American Horror Story: Asylum. Briarcliff’s sprawling interior was a studio-built set.

The Old Orange County Courthouse cameoed as Briarcliff Manor once again in the 2014 episode of American Horror Story: Freak Show titled “Orphans.”

AHS is hardly the only production to have featured the property.

The exterior of the building appeared as the outside of the courthouse where the murder trial of Thelma Jordan (Barbara Stanwyck) took place in the 1950 noir The File on Thelma Jordan . . .

. . . which coincidentally starred convicted killer Paul Kelly, whom I wrote about last week.

The lobby and stairwell of the Old Orange County Courthouse also appeared in the film.

Fellow stalker Jeff let me know that in 1967 the building was used in an establishing shot of the courthouse where Aunt Bee Taylor (Frances Bavier) serves on a jury in the Season 8 episode of The Andy Griffith Show titled “Aunt Bee, the Juror.”

The trial of Clarence Earl Gideon (Henry Fonda) at the beginning of the 1980 made-for-television movie Gideon’s Trumpet took place in Courtroom No. One.

As did North’s (Elijah Wood) trial to emancipate himself from his parents in the 1994 comedy North.

The Old Orange County Courthouse was used for exteriors of the supposed Massachusetts-area tribunal where Brooke Taylor Windham (Ali Larter) went on trial for murder in the 2001 hit Legally Blonde.

The building’s central staircase also made an appearance in the film.

The actual courtroom scenes were shot elsewhere, though – I believe on a set.

Despite that fact, I still had to do my best Elle Woods while there.

Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) argued a preliminary hearing in Courtroom No. One in the 2002 biopic Catch Me If You Can.

DiCaprio returned to the site to shoot Bruno Hauptmann’s (Damon Herriman) trial scenes for 2011’s J. Edgar.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Old Orange County Courthouse, aka Briarcliff Manor from American Horror Story: Asylum, is located at 211 West Santa Ana Boulevard in Santa Ana. You can visit the property’s official website here. The building is open to the public Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

October 19, 2018October 16, 2019

Chateau Emanuel from “The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley”

I am a HUGE fan of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movies, as I have mentioned previously. Passport to Paris, When in Rome, New York Minute – all favorites, even though I am just a wee bit off age-wise when it comes to their target demographic. So when fellow stalker Chris (he’s the one who tracked down the location of the Full House downhill derby) emailed me this past summer and mentioned that he knew of a few other locales from the twins’ many productions, I was all in. One he informed me of, Chateau Emanuel from “The Case of Thorn Mansion” episode of The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley, especially piqued my interest. The massive property sits high atop a bluff overlooking pretty much all of Eagle Rock and I was shocked that in my 15+ years of living in neighboring Pasadena and stalking its environs, I had never come across the place. Because it played an abandoned and haunted house in the episode, I figured the pad had all the makings of a great October post. So I ran right out to stalk it.

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Chateau Emanuel was originally commissioned by Bekins Moving Company founder Martin Bekins. Designed by architect F. Eugene Barton, whom Martin also secured to design the seven-story Bekins Storage Building in nearby Glendale, the Dutch Colonial-style manse was completed in 1927.

When Martin passed away in 1933, the residence was acquired by philanthropist Wilfred “Bill” Lane, who made his fortune by inventing a perforating gun that expedited oil well drilling. The property did not change hands again until 1965, when Lane’s widow sold it to Emanuel and Maria Kvassay. It then remained in the Kvassay family for the next five decades.

The Kvassays, who founded the Sierra Packaging Company, emigrated to the United States from Czechoslovakia after it fell to communist rule. The couple became activists, working to free their native country from communism, and, as such, held numerous fundraisers and political events at the home, which at the time was known as the “Bekins-Lane Mansion.” The dwelling was also the site of countless press functions, weddings, meetings, and galas during the Kvassays’ tenure. Just a few of the politicos and luminaries who attended gatherings there over the years include Stan Lee, Oliver Stone, Marion Ross, Shirley Temple Black, Dr. Edward Teller, Eric Roberts, Rita Wilson, Jesse Jackson, Archbishop José Horacio Gómez, and Lech Wałęsa. Ronald Reagan even hosted a fundraiser for his presidential re-election campaign at the residence in 1984.

When Emanuel and Maria passed away, their three sons inherited the property. Two of the boys remained living on the premises and eldest son, Robert, became the main caretaker, rechristening the place “Chateau Emanuel” in honor of his late father.

The sprawling manse became too much for Robert to handle in recent years, not to mention too expensive – per the Tracy King Team website, water and power bills ran a good $3,500 each month and the lawn took a whopping four hours to mow! In 2010, Robert put the pad on the market with a price tag of $5.99 million. There were no takers, though. He relisted it the following year at a reduced $4.45 million, but no one bit. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles eventually expressed interest in purchasing the residence in 2016 in order to turn it into a retreat and prayer center. In an interesting twist, Katy Perry was even involved in the deal. The pop star offered to buy the pad for the church as part of her ongoing quest to acquire the former Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary convent in Los Feliz. That plan never came to fruition, though, due to zoning problems and in 2017, Chateau Emanuel was listed once again, this time for $5.5 million.

Per the real estate listing, which describes the place as a “compound,” the property boasts a 5,700-square-foot main house with 9 bedrooms, 10 baths, 2 full kitchens, numerous fireplaces, a wet bar, a game room, 2 sitting rooms, an art room, maid’s quarters with a full bath and separate entrance, and a dining room with space for 40 guests. There are also 2 detached guests homes on the premises, the first measuring 3,500 square feet and the second 1,100. The lush 2.1-acre grounds feature a greenhouse, a croquet court, a bistro, a pool, a spa, a stage, rose gardens, a pond, several fountains, pathways, arbors, four gates, cabanas, and parking for 40+ cars! I was particularly taken with the charming wooden footbridges, which look like something out of a fairy tale. I half expected to see Snow White running across one while we were there!

In January of this year, Chateau Emanuel finally sold to none other than Chris Hardwick for $5,250,000. The comedian does not plan on living in the abode, but instead purchased it out of a desire to protect it. Chris was first informed of the dwelling by his mom, real estate agent Sharon Hills, and was quickly smitten. As Curbed Los Angeles explained in an article about the sale, “His purchase of the Bekins estate was motivated in part by the worry that, because the property is so large, it could be sold and redeveloped or otherwise altered. ‘He truly bought this property to preserve it,’ says Hills.’” A man after my own heart! Chris is said to be keeping the home open to historical organizations who wish to hold events there. I’m guessing it will also be available for filming.

In “The Case of Thorn Mansion” episode of The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley, which was released in 1994, Chateau Emanuel portrays the abandoned Thorn Mansion, supposedly located on Black Widow Lane in Transylvania, where the Olsen & Olsen Mystery Agency detectives (“We’ll solve any case by dinner time!”) investigate a supposed haunting. Spoiler alert – the pad turns out not to be haunted. As the twins discover, the “ghost” that neighbors reported seeing on the property was just Mr. Thorn’s granddaughter who was tending to her late grandfather’s beehives.

The property’s real life interior also appeared in the episode.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chris for finding this location! Smile

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Chateau Emanuel, from “The Case of Thorn Mansion” episode of The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley, is located at 1554 Hill Drive in Eagle Rock.

September 10, 2018September 7, 2018

Le Chene French Cuisine from “Sharp Objects”

I am a very black and white person. Opinions typically come to me immediately and tend to swing towards either loving or hating something. I don’t deal much in grey. For some reason, though, I cannot decide if I like Sharp Objects. I thoroughly enjoyed the Gillian Flynn novel on which the new HBO series is based (it is my favorite out of all of her books) and could not have been more excited to watch, especially when I heard it being referred to as “the next Big Little Lies.” But five episodes in and I’m still on the fence. The show’s acting is indisputably top-notch and its storyline gripping, but I also find it slow-moving, bleak, and all-around odd. I was thrilled to learn, though, that while set in the fictional town of Wind Gap, Missouri, filming largely took place in Southern California. I was also thrilled to recognize one spot that I stalked a few years ago, but never blogged about – Le Chene French Cuisine. The Grim Cheaper and I happened by the Santa Clarita eatery way back in March 2013 while doing some stalking nearby and I recalled its unique exterior from its many appearances in film location books and websites chronicling its cameo in 1971’s Duel. So we promptly pulled over to snap some pics. Though the place went right out of my mind and into my stalking backlog, as soon as it showed up on Sharp Objects, I knew I had to dedicate a post to it.

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Le Chene French Cuisine was originally established as the Oaks Garage gas station by mechanic William A. Dodrill and his wife, Rachel Swanson, in 1917. The initial structure that stood on the premises was not much more than a small wooden shack with an adjacent concession stand that offered cold sodas to passersby. You can check out a photo of what it looked like at the time here.

In 1923, the couple decided to broaden their budding enterprise by adding an eatery to the site. Boulders were brought in from Big Rock Creek in Palmdale to cover the new restaurant’s exterior. The unique façade earned the place the nickname “rock house,” as well as “Castle Oaks Garage and Café” thanks to its castle-like appearance.

During the 1940s, the business was acquired by Chester and Marie Lamar and became a hotbed of celebrity activity. Just a few of the well-knowns who popped in while filming in the area or passing by on their way to local attractions include Gregory Peck, Lee Marvin, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Wallace Beery, William Boyd, Jane Wyman, Keenan Wynn, Mickey Cohan, and Clark Gable (who was not the best customer, reportedly).

Since the Lamars’ tenure ended in 1957, the property has been bought and sold several times. It was finally leased by Juan Alonso in 1980. The Spanish-born chef transformed the site into upscale French eatery Le Chene, which translates to “the oak.”

Despite the fact that it is located pretty much in the middle of nowhere, the restaurant quickly became a popular dining spot and Alonso purchased it in 1981. Years later, when the need to expand arose, he gutted the former garage and turned it into a banquet room. He has since enlarged the kitchen and main dining room, remodeled the bar, and added a large garden and a 6-acre vineyard. Today, the eatery boasts a whopping 8,900 square feet.

Le Chene popped up in the fourth episode of Sharp Objects, titled “Ripe,” as the supposed Wind Gap restaurant La Mere, where Camille Preaker (Amy Adams) meets with some of her mother’s friends including Jackie O’Neill (Elizabeth Perkins) and Annie B (Beth Broderick). Both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior of the site appear in the episode. Sadly, Le Chene was closed when we dropped by, so I did not get to see the inside, but you can check out some photos of it here.

In the television movie Duel, which has the distinction of being Steven Spielberg’s first foray into full-length film directing, Le Chene portrays Chuck’s Café, where David Mann (Dennis Weaver) crashes his car after being chased by a menacing truck driver (played by Carey Loftin).

After the collision, David ventures into the restaurant (which looked much different at the time the flick was lensed in 1971) to clean himself up and soon discovers that the truck driver has followed him inside to terrorize him further.

Though an old LoopNet listing for the property suggests that additional filming has taken place the premises, I have been unable to dig up any other productions the place has appeared in.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Le Chene French Cuisine, aka La Mere from Sharp Objects, is located at 12625 Sierra Highway in Santa Clarita. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. The eatery is only open for dinner most days (on Sunday, brunch is served), so plan accordingly.

September 7, 2018September 8, 2018

McGee’s Pub – The Inspiration for MacLaren’s on “How I Met Your Mother”

I have never been a film location purist. I am just as happy visiting spots that have appeared onscreen as I am touring those that have provided inspiration for sets – as evidenced here, here and here. So while in New York in April 2016 I just had to pop by McGee’s Pub, aka the watering hole that MacLaren’s Pub from How I Met Your Mother was based upon. I first learned about the place and its small screen cachet while penning this article for Los Angeles magazine in 2014 and promptly added it to my NYC To-Stalk List. Though I later discovered that Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan) and Barney Stinson’s (Neil Patrick Harris) favorite hangout was actually modeled after four different Manhattan bars, since McGee’s is the only one still in operation today (well, in its original state, at least) and the one most often associated with the show, I figured it was worthy of its own post.

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How I Met Your Mother was the brainchild of producing partners Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, who, like main characters Ted and Marshall, met while attending Wesleyan University. After graduation, the duo moved to New York together and landed a gig writing for the Late Show with David Letterman in 1997. During their five-year stint there, they would often grab drinks at McGee’s, located right around the corner from the Ed Sullivan Theater where Letterman was lensed. In 2002, the two headed to Los Angeles with the hopes of helming a television series. They pitched How I Met Your Mother to CBS in 2005 and the rest is history.

In a 2016 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bays explained that he and Thomas followed a common adage when penning the series – “Write what you know, not what you think you want to see.” As such, they based the two main characters on themselves – Ted is modeled after Carter and Marshall after Craig – and styled their regular hangout like several places the duo patronized while living in NYC. As chronicled in an April 2008 CBS Watch article, McHale’s (a Times Square favorite at 750 8th Avenue that closed in 2006 – you can see photos of it here and here) “lent its dark atmosphere,” Chumley’s (a beloved onetime speakeasy at 86 Bedford Street in the West Village that suffered severe structural damage in 2007, was gutted, redesigned, and finally reopened 9 years later looking much different than its original self) “inspired some of MacLaren’s more rustic touches,” Fez (an Upper West Side Moroccan eatery at 2330 Broadway that shuttered in 2006) “gave the writers the idea to put a few round booths at the back of their TV bar,” and McGee’s “features the model for MacLaren’s WPA-era mural on its back wall.” (McGee’s mural and the one it inspired are both pictured below. Surprisingly, they don’t really resemble each other at all.) Bay and Thomas named their fictional watering hole after Bay’s production assistant, Carl MacLaren.

McGee’s Pub and Restaurant, christened in honor of Ed Sullivan Show cameraman Willie McGee, was originally founded in a small space on the bottom floor of the Ed Sullivan Theater at 1697 Broadway in 1983. You can see what it looked like at the time here. (That site is now home to Angelo’s Pizza.) When Letterman moved into the venue, the theater was extensively renovated and, in conjunction, McGee’s was forced to vacate in July 1995 in order to make way for a more high end restaurant. Owner Pete Fitzpatrick subsequently found a new, larger space right around the corner at 240 West 55th Street.

Though the more ritzy eatery brought in to replace McGee’s folded in a scant 22 months, McGee’s is still going strong today. The 3-story restaurant boasts 22 TVs, 2 bars, an internet jukebox, and a private events suite known as the Symphony Room.

While the bar’s exterior looks nothing like the exterior of MacLaren’s Pub (which was just a façade on the 20th Century Fox Studios backlot in Century City) . . .

. . . the interior of McGee’s is very reminiscent of its onscreen counterpart.

While not exactly carbon copies, MacLaren’s and McGee’s have a decidedly similar atmosphere.

Thanks to its red booths, low lighting, and heavily adorned walls, I truly felt like I was hanging out at Ted and Marshall’s favorite place while at McGee’s. Though I have to say that the original Chumley’s was a place I visited regularly when it was in operation and it, too, had an extremely similar ambiance to MacLaren’s. So Carter and Thomas did a superb job of incorporating the aura of both sites into their set design.

For those location purists unlike me who think a visit to McGee’s is a waste of time being that How I Met Your Mother never actually filmed on the premises, there are countless photos displayed of the cast hanging out at the bar (like the one below which comes from the restaurant’s Facebook page), autographs and clippings galore, as well as a myriad of HIMYM-inspired menu items, such as The Accidental Curly Fry Basket, The Bro Code Combo, and the Suit Up Sandwich, to satisfy any true fan.

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On a How I Met Your Mother side-note – Thanks to my friend Marie, I got to visit 20th Century Fox Studios back in November 2014. The lot isn’t typically open to the public and being there was definitely one of the highlights of my stalking career thus far. During the tour, we were even taken by the MacLaren’s exterior. Though the series had ceased filming almost a year prior, I was thrilled to see that the façade still looked much the same as it did onscreen.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: McGee’s Pub, which served as the inspiration for MacLaren’s Pub on How I Met Your Mother, is located at 240 West 55th Street in New York’s Midtown West neighborhood. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

August 31, 2018August 30, 2018

The “Secrets and Lies” Brothel

I found the second season of Secrets and Lies abysmal – which is surprising being that, on paper, it contained several elements that should have made it a sure-fire hit in my book. Murder mystery premise? Check! Shot in L.A.? Check! And it starred both AnnaLynne McCord (from my beloved 90210) and David James Elliott (one of my all-time favorite cuties). Considering I couldn’t have loved the first season more, especially its locations, Season 2 turned out to be a major disappointment. There was one locale I became fairly obsessed with, though – the Cape Cod-style dwelling from which Melanie Warner (McCord) ran a high-class brothel. The house not only figured prominently in the season’s storyline, but was extremely idyllic and picturesque. So I, of course, immediately set about tracking it down, which wound up being a more fruitful venture than watching Secrets and Lies through to the end. (What the heck was that finale, amirite? I was not at all shocked to hear the series was given the ax a few months after its airing. But I digress.)

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On Secrets and Lies, Melanie’s brothel is said to be at 8686 Mint Hill Drive in Charlotte, North Carolina. A fake “8686” address placard was even placed on the exterior of the residence for the shoot.

While watching the episode titled “The Statement,” though, I noticed that “4735” was painted on the curb of a neighboring house barely visible in the background. I had an inkling the brothel was most likely located in Encino, thanks to its seemingly new construction (the city has been a hotbed of new home activity as of late, especially Cape Cod-style properties which pop up on the regular), so I did a search for residences numbered 4735 in the area and was led to a pad at 4735 Yarmouth Avenue. When I dropped Street View’s little yellow man in front of that address and turned him around, there was the Secrets and Lies brothel staring me in the face. In reality, it can be found at 4720 Yarmouth.

My hunch about the pad being newly constructed turned out to be correct. The massive estate was custom-built in 2013 for its then owner. The residence previously situated on the premises (pictured in the Google Street View image from 2012 below) was much more modest in both size and style.

The new house consists of 5 bedrooms, a whopping 7 baths (one is resort-style with a standalone tub), 6,347 square feet of living space, a chef’s kitchen, a walk-in pantry and a butler’s pantry, a double Calacatta marble island (because one is never enough), both cathedral and coffered ceilings, a formal dining room, a breakfast room, multiple fireplaces (including one outside), a master suite with a sitting room and his-and-her walk-in closets (why, oh why, do the Grim Cheaper and I not have those?), a gym, guest/maids’ quarters, and a 0.45-acre lot with a covered patio, a fire pit, a pool (with a slide!), a spa, a BBQ, a sport court, a putting green, and a covered pool pavilion with three – count ‘em! – three TVs. Talk about amenities goals!

The sprawling estate last sold in July 2016 for $3,950,000.

You can check out some interior photos of the place here. And yes, they’re straight up real estate porn!

The brothel popped up numerous times during the second season of Secrets and Lies, beginning with the episode titled “The Detective” in which Melanie’s husband, Patrick Warner (Charlie Barnett), first finds out about his wife’s illicit business venture.

We don’t get a great view of the pad until “The Statement,” though, in the scene in which Patrick’s brother, Eric Warner (Michael Ealy), stops by the property to investigate what has been going on there. As you can see, the residence is currently much more covered over with foliage than it was when filming took place in late 2015.

While the real interior also appeared in “The Statement,” as well as in the episode that followed titled “The Racket,” the shots were far too tight and contained too much movement for me to be able to get any useable screen shots.

Thanks to IMDB, I learned that the same house was utilized as the residence of Roger Murtaugh (Damon Wayans) and his family during Season 2 of the Lethal Weapon television series. (In Season 1, a different home at 3816 Longridge Avenue in Sherman Oaks portrayed the Murtaugh pad.)

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Melanie’s brothel from Secrets and Lies is located at 4720 Yarmouth Avenue in Encino. Ali’s (Elisabeth Shue) house from The Karate Kid can be found right around the corner at 4072 Alonzo Avenue.

August 17, 2018August 16, 2018

Hope and Michael’s House from “thirtysomething”

I think Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick are two of the greatest television producers ever to walk the face of the earth. Oddly though, while I am obsessed with both My So-Called Life and Relativity (as evidenced here and here), I was never a fan of thirtysomething, one of their earliest forays into the small screen. The 1987 series’ failure to resonate was likely due to its focus on parenting – the subject matter was just a little too adult being that I was ten when the show debuted. I did stalk the large Craftsman home belonging to Hope Murdoch Steadman (Mel Harris) and her husband, Michael (Ken Olin), on it upon first moving to Southern California almost twenty years ago, though. I never got around to blogging about the place, but while recently listening to My So-Called Podcast (a My So-Called Life re-cap show hosted by the creators of fave podcast True Crime Obsessed), I started thinking about the property and figured not only was it high time I dedicate a post to it, but to also give the series it starred on another chance.

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Open up any Pinterest board of famous houses and the Steadman residence will inevitably be pictured. The pad is also documented in pretty much every single Hollywood tour book ever written, is talked about regularly in the comments sections of filming location blogs (especially over at Hooked on Houses), and will definitely go down in the annals of history as one of the best-loved TV homes. Oddly though, the exterior of the dwelling was rarely featured on thirtysomething. I scanned through dozens upon dozens of episodes to make screen captures for this post and only came across a few instances of it being shown. I guess Herskovitz and Zwick weren’t big fans of establishing shots in their early days.

Said to be at 1700 Bryn Mawr Avenue in Philadelphia on the series, the home can actually be found at 1710 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena.

As chronicled in a 1997 People magazine article titled “That’s My House!”, homeowners Dennis and Donna Potts were first approached about the use of their residence on the series via a location scout who knocked on their door in the summer of 1987. The couple wound up being paid $1,500 for each day of filming that occurred on the premises during the show’s four-year run. I would consider that a heck of lot of money today, but back in the late ‘80s? Dang! According to People, production designer Brandy Alexander keyed in on the property because of its age, saying “We wanted an older house so we could have the characters do renovations.”

The home was utilized solely for exterior sequences on thirtysomething. The interior of the Steadman residence was nothing more than a set (a roofless one, at that) built inside of a soundstage at CBS Studio Center (then called CBS/MTM Studios) in Studio City. Per a 1996 New York Times article, the set was based upon the real life interior of two different Pasadena-area Craftsmen – one of which, I came to discover, is definitely the Bushnell house. As you can see in this image of the property’s built-in buffet, it matches what was shown onscreen perfectly.

The dining room is also a pretty direct match, as you can see in this photo as compared to the screen capture below. You can check out some additional images of the actual inside of the Bushnell house here.

Interestingly, audiences considered the set a bit too upper-crust for the middle-class Steadmans, which proved to be an ongoing source of consternation for thirtysomething producers. As author Elisabeth Bumiller states in the New York Times article from 1996, “Even though the creators let the set deteriorate, making the house look dirtier and more lived in, few people bought it.” Herskovitz extrapolates, “No matter what we did, people thought it was a rich, expensive house.” Considering the property’s wood detailing and plethora of built-ins and the fact that Zillow currently pegs its value at $2.23 million, I’m going to have to side with the fans on this one.

In real life, the 1902 pad boasts 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2,760 square feet, a fireplace, stained glass windows, original detailing, a detached garage, a covered patio, 0.17 acres of land, and a garden.

The same property also appeared in the 1990 comedy Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael as the residence of Denton (Jeff Daniels) and Barbara Webb (Joan McMurtrey).

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Hope and Michael Steadman’s house from thirtysomething is located at 1710 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena. Elliot (Timothy Busfield) and Nancy Weston’s (Patricia Wettig) pad from the series is one street over at 1700 Fletcher Avenue. Countless other famous homes are located on Bushnell. The Hopper residence from Ghost Dad is at 1621 Bushnell. Joan’s dwelling from the movie is next door at 1615. The Lambda Epsilon Omega fraternity house from Old School is at 1803 Bushnell. The property located at 1727 Bushnell played both Scott Howard’s (Michael J. Fox) house in Teen Wolf and Lorraine Baines’ (Lea Thompson) 1955 home in Back to the Future. George McFly’s (Crispin Glover) 1955 residence from Back to the Future can be found at 1711 Bushnell, while Biff Tannen’s (Thomas F. Wilson) from Back to the Future Part II is at 1809.

August 15, 2018August 14, 2018

Michelle’s Downhill Derby from “Full House”

There’s nothing like remnants of a film shoot remaining behind years after the fact to set my heart aflutter. Last June, a fellow stalker named Chris kindly emailed me a lengthy and comprehensive list of Full House locations he had tracked down, one of which was the Griffith Park road where the Downhill Derby from Season 7’s “Michelle a la Cart” took place. Though I did not remember the episode, the locale had me particularly intrigued thanks to some vestiges from the shoot Chris noted were still visible. As he wrote in his email, “In the 2007 imagery on Google Street View, you can still see the faded lane markings on the road from the race.” Um, sign me up! So onto my To-Stalk List the site went and I finally headed out there to see it in person a few weeks ago.

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In re-watching “Michelle a la Cart” in preparation for this post, I realized there’s a reason I did not recall it from its original airing in 1994 – the episode just isn’t all that memorable. It centers around three less-than-scintillating storylines. First, D.J. Tanner (Candance Cameron) laments a phone message left by her ex-boyfriend, Steve Hale (Scott Weinger) – she thinks he’s despondent over their recent break-up, but it turns out he just really wants a CD back. Then there’s Joey Gladstone (Dave Coulier) who attempts to learn ballet from Stephanie Tanner (Jodie Sweetin) in the hopes it will improve his hockey-playing skills, which gives us this great visual. Oh, Joey!

In the main narrative, Michelle Tanner (Mary-Kate and Ashely Olsen) decides to build a soapbox car with her aunt Becky (Lori Loughlin) so she can compete in the local Downhill Derby and defeat neighborhood meanie Kenny (K. Evan Bonifant), who thinks she can’t win because she’s a girl. Though lackluster as a whole, the episode did give us a great zinger from Michelle. When faced with her nemesis’ jeering, she tells him, “My dad said if I can’t say anything nice then I shouldn’t say anything at all . . . but my dad’s not here and you’re a weenie!” (You can see a clip of the fabulous moment here.)

The episode culminates in the big Downhill Derby competition, which was set up on Vista Del Valle Drive just west of where it intersects with North Vermont Canyon Road in Griffith Park. The race’s starting point was positioned at the very eastern edge of Vista Del Valle Drive, close to where it dead ends.

The finish line was set up about two hundred feet away, where the hilly part of the road bottoms out.

(Spoiler alert – Michelle, of course, wins the derby and, in the process, learns that girls can do anything boys can do.)

In the episode, the racers’ lanes are made up of uninterrupted white lines and dotted yellow lines, as you can see below.

It is those lines that are still visible today – not just on Google Street View imagery from 2007 as Chris had mentioned, but in real life, too.

Though extremely faded, the dotted yellow lines . . .

. . . and the uninterrupted white lines are still somewhat intact, as you can see in my photos above and below.

While I originally assumed that the markings were painted onto the road strictly for the Full House shoot, it is entirely possible they were there prior to the filming – especially since the yellow lines pictured in my images appear to be newer additions. Considering said lines are not typical road boundaries, though (I have never seen anything like them, at least), and it is unclear as to exactly what they designate, I do not believe they are original elements of the street. Either way, I love that markings visible in a shoot that took place 24 years ago remain evident today.

While I was stalking the Downhill Derby site, security guards happened to be setting up street closures on the premises for a concert that was taking place nearby later that night. I can only imagine their befuddlement in seeing me bounce all over the road, enthusiastically snapping photo after photo of faded lines and loudly exclaiming to the Grim Cheaper how thrilled I was to be seeing them in person. Ah, to be on the outside looking in.

Big THANK YOU to Chris for finding this location and telling me about it! Smile

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Downhill Derby from the “Michelle a la Cart” episode of Full House took place on Vista Del Valle Drive just west of where it intersects with North Vermont Canyon Road in Griffith Park. (Be advised, some maps refer to Vista Del Valle as “Boy Scout Road,” though Google Maps and my GPS both recognize the street as Vista Del Valle.)

July 27, 2018August 18, 2020

The Lewis Estate from “American Woman”

The internet has been going crazy as of late over images of Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood filming on location in L.A. The period piece, which stars Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Luke Perry (OMG!) and chronicles the murder of Sharon Tate, is set in 1960s Tinseltown. As Tarantino said at CinemaCon in April, “Street by street, block by block, we’ll transform Los Angeles into the Hollywood of 1969.” And transform it, he has. The director has brought countless lost city landmarks back to life in their original locations. I so wish I was there to witness it all! Another recent production that has also been resurrecting retro L.A. is American Woman, which debuted on the Paramount Network in early June. Set in 1975, the series is loosely based upon the life of Kathleen Richards, mom of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards, who serves as co-executive producer. Though I find the show to be a bit blah, the costumes and music are downright intriguing and the locations have me practically foaming at the mouth, especially the mid-century modern pad that serves as the home of lead character Bonnie Nolan (Alicia Silverstone) and her two daughters, Becca (Makenna James) and Jessica (Lia McHugh). So I, of course, set out to pinpoint it.

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Said to be in Bel Air on the series, one look at the retro-fabulous property told me it was more likely located in Encino.

Thanks to the unique configuration of the residence, which consists of two adjacent rotundas, it was a snap to find. I simply inputted “mid-century modern,” “house,” “Encino,” and “circular” into Google and the first response kicked back was a 2011 article about a pad for sale at 17862 Via Vallarta in Lake Encino complete with listing photos showing the very same spot I was searching for! I ran out to stalk it shortly thereafter.

Known as the Lewis Estate in real life, the 1972 residence was commissioned by Joby and Helen Lewis, proprietors of Lake Tahoe’s Cal-Vada Lodge, as well as several Los Angeles nightclubs.

The unique property, designed by Benton/Park/Candreva Architects, is formed by two dodecagons (aka 12-sided structures) connected via a glass pavilion.

The sprawling 4-bedroom, 4-bath, 5,377-square-foot estate boasts a 3-car garage, a sunken living room, Rosewood detailing, brass sunburst front doors, maid’s quarters, a fireplace, a fire pit, a pool, a spa, and 1.33 acres of land. Amazingly, very little of the home has been altered since it was built 45-plus years ago.

After Joby passed away in 1998, Helen continued to live at the residence. Upon her death in July 2011, the property was put on the market for $2,900,000. It eventually sold that November for $1,887,500 to husband-and-wife art auctioneers/architecture buffs Peter and Shannon Loughrey who have resolved to keep much of the place’s original detailing intact. Peter is definitely a man after my own heart. As a Ventura Boulevard article about the house states, “When Peter Loughrey first moved to California he was so enamored by the modernist homes he’d pass while driving through Brentwood and Bel Air that he’d often stop, ring the doorbell and ask the owner for a tour. ‘A little old lady would answer and I’d say “Is this a Neutra house?”’ recalls Peter, referring to pioneering Austrian-American architect Richard Neutra. ‘She’d say “Yes! How did you know?” Then she’d let me in, make me a sandwich and show me around.’” Oh Peter, you and I could so hang!

The Lewis Estate’s original detailing is no doubt what led to its use on American Woman. The residence is featured regularly on the series in establishing shots of the Nolan family home, as well as in some on-location scenes.

The residence’s actual interior, which you can see photos of here and here, appeared in the show’s first two episodes, “Liberation” (pictured below) and “Changes and the New Normal.”

Beginning with episode 4, titled “The Cost of Living,” the production began utilizing a set for interiors of the Nolan home. That set is pictured below.

The property’s real-life pool and backyard area have been featured several times on the series, as well.

Fellow stalker Lisa informed me that the Lewis Estate also appears extensively as the home of Ken (Brían F. O’Byrne) and Grace Karn (Michaela McManus) during the first season of the television series Aquarius, which aired in 2015.

The Lewis Estate briefly pops up in the pilot episode of Snowfall, which aired in 2017, as the residence of Robert Volpe (Taylor Kowalski).

And the house party at the end of 2019’s Booksmart takes place there, as well.

Eagle-eyed fellow stalkers likely noticed the blue and white filming notification attached to the residence’s front lamp in my photos.

That notification was for Elle King’s “Shame” music video, which you can watch here.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The American Woman house is located at 17862 Via Vallarta in the Lake Encino neighborhood of Encino.